Simple Songs

Jim O'Rourke - Simple Songs
Critic Score
Based on 10 reviews
2015 Ratings: #103 / 1021
User Score
Based on 153 ratings
2015 Rank: #212
Liked by 4 people
May 19, 2015 / Release Date
LP / Format
Drag City / Label
Chamber Pop / Genre
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
Tiny Mix Tapes

It’s difficult keeping track of everything O’Rourke has a hand in, and Simple Songs works as an antidote for clutching at straws by adding a layer of depth to an otherwise indiscernible character; it offers insight into the workings of a prodigious mind, and it comes off sounding triumphant.

90
The Line of Best Fit

Simple Songs as a title is a classic O’Rourke curveball – the album’s eight tracks are as complex and intricate as anything he’s has released, with or without vocals.

86
Pitchfork

O’Rourke is always clever and funny, but the driving force in his music is the art of the arrangement. Many of the greatest pleasures on Simple Songs come from how certain instruments are layered together, how the chords are voiced and the harmonic progressions unfold.

80
Paste
While these eight new tunes are more straightforward than much of his work, that is not to suggest they are lacking in intricacy.
80
Exclaim!

The songs are lushly dense and about as challenging and exhilarating as pop can be.

75
Consequence of Sound

The songs are mysteriously open, closed off in their approachability, layered in beauty and pain, and collectively serving as a reminder of Jim O’Rourke’s polymath multitudes.

70
American Songwriter

Neither easy listening or abrasive, Simple Songs is the sound of O’Rourke spraying his idiosyncratic fairy dust over a genre he clearly appreciates, albeit through the lenses of his own somewhat eccentric vision.

DolphinLaugh
NR

What this album does for Jim O'Rourke's dizzyingly eclectic and varied discography is prove a point.

Jim is most known for his late 90's-early 2000's input which is also his most digestible. Take Bad Timing, his beautiful exploration into American Primitivism (he is friends with John Fahey, so it checks out.) Take Insignificance, his indie rock detour, and Eureka, his artsy chamber pop magnum opus. These albums only scrape the surface of what Jim was artistically capable of. We would see him ... read more

Doofy
77

What we're dealing with here is typical O'Rourke - deadpan vocals and layered but always obsessively neat highly varied instrumentation.

Arguably his most consistent set of simple songs yet.

BonoLightier
78

Solid instrumentation.

bbylikesit
85

thank u jim

DolphinLaugh
NR

What this album does for Jim O'Rourke's dizzyingly eclectic and varied discography is prove a point.

Jim is most known for his late 90's-early 2000's input which is also his most digestible. Take Bad Timing, his beautiful exploration into American Primitivism (he is friends with John Fahey, so it checks out.) Take Insignificance, his indie rock detour, and Eureka, his artsy chamber pop magnum opus. These albums only scrape the surface of what Jim was artistically capable of. We would see him ... read more

Doofy
77

What we're dealing with here is typical O'Rourke - deadpan vocals and layered but always obsessively neat highly varied instrumentation.

Arguably his most consistent set of simple songs yet.

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Track List

1Friends With Benefits
5:25
89
2That Weekend
3:15
79
3Half Life Crisis
4:42
86
4Hotel Blue
3:21
86
5These Hands
3:13
77
6Last Year
5:47
91
7End of the Road
5:33
84
8All Your Love
6:22
90
Total Length: 37 minutes
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Added on: April 10, 2015